When you've known someone for a long time, been close, shared important parts of your lives, you tend to get into a way of thinking that says "This is who he is. I know him, all of him. He could never surprise me." You get complacent towards that person, until you suddenly get slapped upside the head by something you didn't see coming.

Liet looked the same, when he came back from being with Russia. So I blithely assumed he was the same, hadn't changed a bit. I had no idea what kind of life he's been leading in Russia's house, and finding out wasn't a major priority for me---"if he wants me to know, he'll tell me!" I thought, and he didn't. He acted a little strange in the evening, though, so I thought I'd play a little trick on him in the bath to liven him up. Only I couldn't do it, not after I saw the scars on his back.

So I came back out here to the living room feeling very funny, because as it turns out there's a side of Liet I am not familiar with and now I'm suddenly seeing him in a very different light, as if he had become a stranger while we were apart, become someone I don't know. I'm wondering if it was Russia who put those marks on Liet's body; if so, what I'd like to do to him in return can't really be described aloud, but I can't know, not for sure.

Because something like that, you can't just ask someone. You can't just casually tell him you accidentally saw something he wanted to keep hidden from you and oh, by the way, how did that happen? I can't say that to Liet. I would never have thought there would ever be anything I couldn't say to him. But there are some places even a best friend can't go.

Liet will be coming out of the bath soon, and I'll have to greet him and pretend as if nothing happened between the time he left this room and the time he came back in, which will be hard, but I'll have to manage it, just for his peace of mind.

I couldn't stop him from being hurt. But I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. And I'll do my best to see if I can't cheer him up a little tonight, take his mind off things. After all, he's my friend.

fin

A/N Poland sounds different than usual because he's being serious and also because I didn't think I could do the Valley Girl accent and make the story work.